Fight to name it

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, December 21, 1997

1997-12-21 04:00:00 PDT SACRAMENTO -- Some people would call it tilting at windmills. Not James Moody.

For most of this decade, Moody has been lobbying to get the I Street bridge in Sacramento renamed "The World Peace Bridge" and repainted red and white. So far, no luck.

"But it's gonna happen," said Moody, 81, an Army veteran of World War II. "I know it's gonna happen. But when, I don't know."

Moody wants the bridge renamed because that's where Sacramento veterans would gather every Memorial Day through the Vietnam War years, at 8:30 in the morning, to honor the dead and sprinkle flowers on the water of the Sacramento River. He's written to every government official he can think of and hasn't gotten the go-ahead yet.

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Even if the powers that be offer him another bridge to rename, Moody wants none of it. His allegiance to veterans, especially Navy veterans who have joined him on those Memorial Days, is rock solid.

"It's got to be this one," said Moody. "Twenty years of honoring veterans, honoring the Navy. It has to be this one."

The I Street bridge, built in 1911, "moves on a pedestal to open for paddle wheelers," Moody explained.

"Although it's no Golden Gate Bridge . . . if we can get this bridge named "World Peace Bridge' then we can assist getting a "World Peace Museum' in West Sacramento . . . and we can get "World Peace State - California,' so named the first in the United States."

Moody, first commander of the Camelia chapter of AmVets (American veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam), has already won a battle against local government to get an Interstate 5 bridge, 11 miles north of Sacramento, renamed the Vietnam Veterans Bridge. After two years of lobbying, the bridge was renamed in 1969 - the first such honor for Vietnam vets in this country.

"Back then they would tell me, "Oh, nobody wants that,' " said Moody. "Vietnam was a dirty word, you know. When I talked to city people they practically threw me out of the office.

"But I persevered. I kept going and going and going and now it's there. It's a beautiful bridge, and the rest stop is nice and they've got a park adjacent to it, the Vietnam Vets Memorial Park."

At the dedication "there were quite a few dignitaries there, generals, this and that," said Moody. "It was a wonderful story, from A to Z. You betcha."

It's been tougher to get the I Street span renamed, Moody said. For one thing, he's not sure who has the final say.

"The city doesn't seem to knowwho owns the bridge. The city owns the roads up to the bridge and Union Pacific Railroad owns the bridge, and there's a conflict there."

Union Pacific officials were unavailable for comment.

But when Moody first broached the subject, Union Pacific spokesman Mike Furtney told a local paper, "I'd hold out little hope. I'm sure they have the best of intentions, but renaming a bridge is not going to make a difference in world peace."

"What does he know?" Moody huffed. "He don't know the story behind it. The real story is, we want to honor veterans, to honor the ones who got killed in submarines, the Navy . . . and this bridge is on the water, over the Sacramento River."

Moody, who was with the Army Quartermaster Corps in the Aleutian Islands campaign of World War II, said, "I know a lot of the old vets are dying off. I know that . . . and the younger ones, they're not joiners. But I keep at it. I've talked to 3,000 people in maybe the last three years, and everybody says, "Great.' "

Moody has sent letters to assemblymen, senators and city officials, and waits for somebody to get in his corner to rename and repaint the bridge.

"I'd like it to be red and white - red for the blood that was shed, white for peace," he said. "It would look a lot better than it does right now because it flakes off. It needs painting bad."

Daniel Moody of San Francisco, 51, has followed his uncle's forays into the political backwaters of Sacramento.

"It's amazing to see some of the letters he gets back from legislators, some of the reasons why they tell him it can't be done," Daniel Moody said. "They ask him, "What does Sacramento have to do with world peace?' Which I think is a wonderful question. A wonderful question."

Moody, who moved to Sacramento in 1948 and has lived 37 years in the same house, scoffs at skeptical legislators. He'll keep visiting city officials and spending time in the library while he waits for word on the bridge.

With the support of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and other organizations, Moody hopes to break through, eventually.

"This'll happen," he said. "I work on it every chance I get. Nobody says I look that old, but I'm 81 . . . but sharp. Sharp."